Review: White Noise: A Tale of Horror

Horror games have become a dime a dozen now and frankly, aren’t that scary either. One only has to look at what Resident Evil used to be like, and what it’s become (read our reviews of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 for more on this). It’s gone from Survival Horror to Action Third Person Shooter with Zombies. True there are some games such as Amnesia: Dark Descent who are flying the flag for truly scary games but they are few and far between. So where does White Noise fall? Surprisingly, and thankfully, it falls firmly into the latter. This is not a game to be played with the lights out.

A lot of the current horror games coming out are based around the Slender Man myth (e.g. Haunt: The Real Slender Game), and this game seems to take from that mythos as well, as you are wandering round a Forest looking for Audio logs and trying to hide from an evil creature that is lurking in the woods. The other myth that this game reminded me off was the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. If you look at them, they freeze, if not, they can move at the speed of light (or close enough).

To combat this evil creature you’re given a flashlight and the ability to run. Yep, that’s it. So you’re not an ex-cop who knows how to wield 10 different weapons to perfection. So far, very Amenesia. You’re safe until you collect your first audio log (which incidentally you can’t listen to) and then the creature starts chasing after you. This creature can move, quickly. At one point I was crossing a bridge running as I had had the warning that he was close, so I ran across, low and behold there he was, right in front off me, so I had to turn tail and run. So the game can be extremely infuriating as well.

The best thing about this game was that it made me jump and have to go turn the lights on (as every good horror game should be played in the dark) and as I consider myself to be quite a horror fanatic, that’s a pretty good job on Milkstone Studio’s part. What made it that scary? The score and the sound effects. The sharp burst of noise when the monster is near, the white static that grows up on the screen the closer the monster is. It all adds to a pretty terrifying game. It’s also exceedingly difficult. The game only ends when you collect all eight audio logs or you die. It’s short, but it’s intense.

Overall this is a good game, and for 80 MSP you can’t go wrong for this good scare. Over the holidays, put this game on in front of the family, and try not to give the older folks a heart attack. More information can be found on the Xbox 360 Market Place.

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